Special Topics in Cognitive Neuroscience: Cog. Neuroscience of Meditation

As well as being an ancient spiritual practice central to many religious traditions, meditation has recently been reported to result in improved psychological and physical health. Meditation is defined as “paying attention in a particular way, on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally” (Kabat-Zinn, 1994). In this course, we consider the hypothesis that meditation’s beneficial effects may be mediated by entraining the human attention system. We will read and discuss the cognitive neuroscience of attention and the neural bases of meditation. In addition, students will be introduced to mindfulness-based meditation techniques increasingly used in combination with traditional medical and psychotherapeutic interventions. Students are required to read journal articles and book chapters as well as participate in classroom discussions. Students are also required to write several short papers. This seminar course is open only to advanced psychology majors.